George Romero

I wish I had a cooler story about the first time I saw George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. I'd like to say I snuck in to see it at a midnight show in Times Square back in 1978. I'd like to say I saw it in the gloriously appropriate surroundings of one of those cavernous shopping malls where the film was set. This simply isn't the case, however. I was born in the West of England in 1974, so to be honest, even saying that I'd caught it at the infamous Scala Cinema in Kings Cross, London, would be a falsehood. My first viewing of Dawn of the Dead was on a bog standard VHS version put out by 4-Front video in the early '90s. I watched it on a sunny afternoon in my bedroom after having rented it illegally from my local video shop. This was no random rental though. I was already sold.